The Voyages of Snow White: Sunday 3rd February 2013 Las Salinas Dominican Republic

We are here at last. We left Monte Cristi at the reasonable hour of 9am, after the anchor chain jammed on the gipsy, raising the main and jib in a light breeze on the aft port quarter, but being able to stop the engine every now and again until about 3am on Wednesday 23^rd when enough wind picked up to allow 2-5knots. During that first pleasant days sailing there were allot of flying fish about, I even saw a mahi-mahi chasing them, a massive turtle surfaced briefly, but nothing on my lures!

Sunset over Haiti

We entered the windward passage, between Haiti and Cuba, the evening of Wednesday 23^rd sailing with only the odd time having to resort to the motor, and quite a bit of shipping, though not close. We rounded the Southern tip of Haiti at dawn on Friday 25^th having had a good sail down, into a South East wind (that’s the way we want to go) so headed off on a tack to the SSW as being the closest to the wind we could sail. On Saturday 26^th something stole my lures, I did not put out any more as the swell and general comfort onboard did not allow it. From here on the wind was blowing from NE to SE at 20-30 knots with gusts even worse and swell from 1-2m close into shore to 2-4m offshore and various cross swells. At about midday on Monday 28^th I decided to reef down and took in two reefs on the main, but the jib refused to cooperate, tangling the sheets, pulling loose part of the starboard jib track and tearing part of the bolt rope, leaving me the only option of pulling it down, however the halyard had frayed at the masthead, however after a struggle I succeded and stuffed it into the fore hatch at last, I raised a storm sail on the inner stay, reducing our progress from 3-6knots to around 2knots. On Tuesday 29^th I found my last loaf of bread was mouldy, I had a couple of disheartened lethargic after that.

Just after sunrise on the Thursday 31^st January the wind died just after tacking out to sea again, so after starting the engine I went to work in the calm, re-bolting the jib track, raising a new jib halyard patching the and re-raising jib and stowing the storm jib. The wind picked up again and off we went at 3-6knots again. On Saturday 2^nd Feb the wind came round to the NE allowing me to ease the sheets, taking the wind more on the Starboard side and increasing our speed to over 7knots at times, it started to look possible we could get in just after sundown, this was not to be, in the event it was dark (the moon had no risen) when we rounded the entrance to Las Salinas, so creeping in slowly we anchored near where we wanted to be, made a cup of tea and something to eat and went to bed. Oh yes it looks like at least one of my water tanks has burst, most if not all the lockers have had water get into them and one of the pulleys on the furling rope has broken free; the distance from Monte Cristi to Las Salinas by planned route was about 560 nautical miles, we covered nearly 920 nautical miles in 11½ days, averaging 3.3knots and running the engine for 25½ hours.

Las Salinas at last

Mountains North of Las Salinas

Sunday 3^rd being a pleasant fairly still day I decided to start fixing and tidying, having just opened the hatch to the water tanks and found it full of brackish water the Coast guard turned up! Not armed this time, but sandy boots and no English, he took the despacho from Monte Cristi and told me when I was ready to leave to go to the office for the despacho to move on, then he and his drug enforcement mate started to look around looking into cupboards and lockers, then asked where was my drink, I explained being alone I do not have drink aboard, so after asking for a backhander they left, allowing me to continue my clean-up and repair. I think I have fixed everything at deck level and started cleaning the galley and saloon, emptied all the free water out of the water tank area, so will see if either tank continues leaking water.